life skills

th 25 Jan2018

Life Skills 18: Transport for London made it clear that our quality of life would be similar to Ed Sheeran's if we had a free second generation Oyster card so we ordered one. It arrived and on line we tried to transfer credit from old to new card but though we hadn't set up a password on the new card the software was convinced there was a password so we set one up, 48 hour wait for it to update. Having managed to move £1.79 from old to new Oyster card we then credited the new card online for five pounds but for the credit to complete we had to use the card within three days, not much use. Something then revealed that an Oyster card is no cheaper than a contactless debit card and a debit card can be registered with TfL so you still receive your use reports ... life eh?

th 14 Dec2017

Life Skills 17: Those Tesco discount off a big shop vouchers have a start as well as an end date, caught us out at the big Tescosin Bury.

su 20 Aug2017

Life Skills 16: When giving your pump number to a petrol station cashier it might help to gesture towards or look at the pump in the hope that you won't be charged for somebody else's fuel like we did on the A14 a while back. Yesterday at the same station when we told the female cashier that the gent's toilet stalls were about to overflow we got Mmm ... lovely.

we 5 Apr2017

Life Skills 14: Before closing a credit card account with a monthly direct debit cancel the direct debit first like we did our MBNA card, despite having zero balance MBNA is complaining it can't take the £25 direct debit.

mo 9 Jan2017

Life Skills 13: When sending us a press release not for publication best to point out it's not for publication ... alternatively don't bother in the first place.

th 13 Oct2016

Life Skills 12: When opening a bank account online, say hypothetically a TSB cash ISA, check how you can get your money out again, you may be told you have to visit a branch and the nearest TSBs to near the coast are Stowmarket and Ipswich ... we do like the tv ad with the little dog though.

tu 14 Jun2016

Life Skills 11: Unless you live in the countryside there will be one of these near your house though the yellow paint will be long gone. It's a fire hydrant. When the fire engine's water tanks run out as the brigade try to put your house fire out they get more water from the hydrant. If your fire hydrant is in an unmade road not a good idea to bury the hydrant when you're filling in the potholes.

th 31 mr 16

Life Skills 10: Don't travel on a bank holiday, definitely don't travel on a bank holiday that's a nice sunny day and absolutely absolutely don't travel on a bank holiday that's a nice sunny day and the forecast says it'll be the only nice day of the weekend. (Our journey last Good Friday took over eight hours rather than the usual four.)

tu 1 Mar2016

Life Skills 9: Supermarkets that have a world food section (the Norwich Hartford Bridge Tesco has Nigerian6% Guinness!) may have those large cellophane bags of ground spices at a pro rata one fifth the price of Schwartz refills. We decant them into large one time gherkin jars and even then the jars aren't big enough. Couldn't see any large bags in the Martlesham Tesco today but not surprisingly the Hackney Tesco does stock them.

mo 23 Nov2015

Life Skills 8: Proving identity can be difficult especially if it's your elderly mum in a care home and oddly enough she doesn't hold a firearms license. Web printed statements from paperless utility accounts won't satisfy Barclays but surprisingly although a lot more than a few months old a council tax bill will.

tu 1 Sep2015

Life Skills 7:From today the maximum you can spend on a contactless tap and go card increases from £20 to £30 so now you can probably use it to buy lunch in Pret A Manger ... whatever that is!

su 21 Jun2015

Life Skills 6: When did you last make a call from a pay phone box? (Yes, they do still exist, this one's near Halesworth station.) We think our last time was ten years ago in Epping High Street and we put a pound coin in to be safe, nowadays it's a bit more complicated.

mo 26 Jan2015

Life Skills 5: If you find yourself in Long Stratton on a Sunday after 4pm the big Co-op is shut but the little one on the corner opposite the Shell/Lotus garage is open. This knowledge is particularly valuable if you're travelling back to near the coast and haven't realised the new Spar in Stradbroke will be open.

sa 25 Oct2014

Life Skills 4: Scissors with a screw that keeps loosening tighten the screw, turn the scissors over and centre punch the end of the screw so it expands just a little.

fr 3 Oct2014

Life Skills 3: Those large jars of Marmite which seem to be the default these days have flats on the sides. No doubt something to do with how they pack in a box but it has the unintended consequence that you can put the jar on its side, leave for while and get the last couple of spreadings out a bit easier.

sa 17 May2014

Life Skills 2: If going out (especially if going out out) and wine is likely to be taken don't wear your new glasses ... or when painting a ceiling.

tu 18 Mar2014

Life Skills 1: When sending a letter (a letter not an email) to a big organisation use recorded (or special) delivery not because it's more likely to get there but because big organisations use the Royal Mail barcode to log the letter's arrival, without it they'll have no record the letter arrived.